Sunday

The Giza Pyramids, the one surviving wonder of the ancient world, have always been a focus of interest. Historians, archaeologists and scientists are fascinated by the mystery they emanate.

They have also generated more extreme pseudoscience than any other ancient monument on the planet, being popular focal points for theories on ufology, the Illuminati and Atlantis. People who subscribe to such notions even have their own name now: “pyramidiots”.

The most popular theory is that the Pyramids have supernatural or paranormal powers to preserve food, maintain the sharpness of razor blades, improve health and trigger sexual urges.

It is not clear who came up with such ideas or what they are based on, but it has prompted numerous people to come to Egypt seeking to absorb the mystical vibes said to be trapped inside the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkawre.

Pyramid power is said to cure a host of ills, give glimpses of the future, provide a better night’s sleep and even halt aging.

More recently, driven by the idea that the Pyramids can enhance sexual prowess, in the absence of guards or police to stop them, a group of people shot pornography on the Giza Plateau that was later posted on the Internet by a Russian-speaking woman.

The ten-minute video was apparently posted last year but did not generate attention until newspapers

published screenshots with the woman’s breasts blurred out. According to reports, much of the video was shot in areas closed off to tourists and the actress is a young porn star named Aurita, who posts on a website called Porn Travelling.

The video sparked anger in Egypt, where Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty referred the issue to the prosecutor general for investigation. A week after the incident a local, privately owned newspaper published a story about foreigners who came to the Giza Plateau after midnight for a special ritual that newspapers have referred to as “Masonic.”

The newspaper claims that the group spent the night in King Khufu’s burial chamber where they chanted, meditated in the lotus position and danced.

Kamal Wahid, the head of the Central Administration for Cairo and Giza Monuments, however, said the newspaper’s report was based on unfounded claims. “No Masonic parties or ritual processions have taken place inside the Great Pyramid or anywhere on the plateau,” Wahid said.

He went on to explain that hundreds of tourist groups come to the plateau for private visits, whether inside the Great Pyramid or by the Sphinx, for a special fee after they obtain the approval of Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism and the Antiquities Police. From two to four archaeological inspectors and a police security force accompany each group on these private visits.

Before entering the Pyramid or the Sphinx courtyard, Wahid explained, every tourist is subjected to inspection by police in order to guarantee that they do not possess illegal objects such as candles, cameras, liquids or any solid object that could harm the monuments. The tour guide is even required to sign a pledge not to let the group conduct rituals inside the monument.

“All these procedures take place according to Ministry of Antiquities regulations,” Wahid asserted, citing cases where the police have prohibited private groups from entering the Pyramid.

“Did the reporter see them or only hear about them?” Wahid asked, dismissing the newspaper report and claiming it was bad press for tourism at a time when the country is in dire need of foreign visitors. “What kind of rituals is she talking about and what is her proof?”

Los Angeles is a scary place filled with gang bangers, hipsters, wanna be stars and trust fund kids. Some may say that the top 5 scariest places around Los Angeles are the bars on Hollywood Blvd, or the Sunset Strip or the homeless tent cities downtown. Those places may be gut wrenching anxiety inducing bastions all by themselves, but this list of the top 5 scariest places around Los Angeles has a bit more to do with the paranormal. It was a bit interesting trying to figure out what places to include on my list. I could have done all hotels, or movie theaters. I could have done private residences or Hollywood backlots… But I wanted to keep the list to places accessible to everyone. Also, I wanted to keep my list down to places that I have visited myself… and felt the creepy vibe and heard the whispers of the past. So in no particular order, here is my list of the Top 5 Scariest Places Around Los Angeles.

5. The Queen Mary

Making her maiden voyage on May 27 th 1936, the Queen Mary was bigger, faster, and more powerful then the Titanic. Over the course of her life, the Queen Mary was used as an elite trans oceanic cruise liner, a military transport, and now a tourist attraction and hotel.

During her early years, the Queen Mary was considered by the upper-class to be the only civilized way to travel. The Queen Mary held the record for the fastest-ever North Atlantic crossing. During WWII, The Queen Mary was brought into military service, and was known as "The Grey Ghost", and even participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy where 30,000 soldiers lost their lives.

In 1967, The Queen Mary made her final voyage to Long Beach California to become the museum / hotel that she is today.

Over the years, the Queen Mary has had 49 deaths on board, and is supposedly home to over 150 restless spirits. Some hotbeds of Paranormal activity on board the Queen Mary are the engine room where the infamous watertight door 13 crushed 2 men to death at different points through history. The first and second class swimming pools that both have spirits of little girls as well as other swimmers, and the first class lounge with it's dancing woman dressed in white. The first class state rooms have also had many reported instances of hauntings as well as the third class children's playroom. If you are longing for your own haunted evening in the L.A. area, go ahead and book a room on the Queen Mary...

4. Linda Vista Hospital

Linda Vista Hospital began it's life in 1904 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Originally the Santa Fe Coastlines Hospital, a healthcare facility dedicated to servicing employees of the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1937, the hospital was enlarged and became the Linda Vista Community Hospital. By the 1970's, the gangs took over Boyle Heights and Linda Vista became a low income hospital servicing a constant influx of gunshot wounds and drug overdoses. Linda Vista could barely keep up with operating costs as more and more arriving patients showed up lacking insurance or income to pay for their treatments, and doctors moved on to better paying hospitals.

In 1988 Linda Vista's ER stopped accepting ambulances. The quality of care continued to decline and in 1991 the last patient checked out of Linda Vista.

While the general belief is that the hospital closed due to lack of funds, there are stories and rumors spoken under hushed breath that the hospital's unusually high death due to mistreatment and abuse was the real reason for the closing.

Since the closing of Linda Vista Hospital, Hollywood has rushed in to use the striking deco building as a backdrop for many movies. Films such as " Outbreak," "End of Days," "Pearl Harbor" and the horror classics "Dead Girl", and "Someone's Knocking at the Door" have all shot in these halls as well as many others. During her time as a Hollywood Star, Linda Vista's haunted reputation grew. Three spirits in particular have been sighted on multiple occasions: a young woman paces the hallways of the third floor and has occasionally screamed in fright at something. A little girl lurks in the surgical room frightening anyone who sees her, and the restless spirit of hospital worker still makes his daily rounds through the decrepit hallways.

In 2011, Linda Vista Hospital was purchased was renovated into the Linda Vista Senior Apartments and now provide a total of 97 apartments for fixed-income seniors plus a medical facility.

3. Devils Gate Reservoir – Pasadena

The story of Devils Gate got it's name from an odd rock formation said to resemble the devil. Native Americans thought the area near Devil's Gate to be haunted and they forbade their people from frequenting the spot. The modern tales of paranormal activity at Devils Gate begins in the 1940s with a man named Jack Parsons. Jack Parsons was resident of Pasadena, co founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and to some, the founder of the American Space Program. He was also an occultist. Parsons was the leader of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis society Los Angeles. Parsons was at the center of Southern California occult bohemia in the 1940s, and preformed rituals he said would create an anti-Messiah that would overthrow Judeo-Christian civilization. These rituals were preformed near the Devils Gate, which Crowley himself called one of the seven portals to hell. The stories say that these rituals did indeed open a portal to another dimension that's since been a point of entry for all sorts of strange entities.

Over the years, several children have disappeared without a trace from the area. Several hikers and adventures have had encounters with spirits believed to be those of the missing children. The Los Angeles Ghost Patrol even did an investigation of the area that can be seen here.

Originally constructed in 1924 as a hotel for business travelers, the Cecil hotel in downtown Los Angeles was hit hard by the depression. By the 1950's The Cecil was well known as a low rent home for transients and other people at the bottom of society. The Cecil has had its share of suicides and murders. 2 serial killers stayed at the hotel including the infamous "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez in 1985, and Jack Unterweger in 1991 who murdered three prostitutes in his room at the Cecil.

The Cecil is reportedly the last place famed Black Dalia, Elizabeth Short, was seen alive, and in 2011 Canadian tourist Elisa Lam disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the Cecil only to found 2 weeks later dead in one of the hotels rooftop water tanks. (she was discovered after a number of guests reported a foul taste to the water.) The mystery of Elisa Lam's death deepens with security camera footage of Lam acting strange in the elevator of the Cecil shortly before her disappearance.

In 2012, an episode of Biography Channel's Haunted Encounters: Face to Face shot part of an episode in the Cecil. The episode was titled Ghosts of Skid Row/Kreischer Mansion. The show sent the Paranormal Syndicate team along with their canine investigator Captain to explore reports of haunting at the Cecil Hotel. Currently there is a feature film about Elisa Lam in development as well as a documentary about the hotel currently shooting.

If you are looking to try your luck with the spirits of the Cecil, it is currently accepting reservations under the name The Stay on Main

By many accounts, all of Los Angeles' Griffith Park, and the area around it, is haunted. Stories of Ghosts in the park have been told since its' opening in the late 1800's. From the spirits of the famed observatory, to the ghosts of the Hollywood sign, there isn't a place in Griffith park that hasn't seen some sort of paranormal activity. But no place is as peculiar as the Old L.A. Zoo. The Zoo was opened in 1912 and remained the main L.A. Zoo until it closed in 1965 with the opening of the new L.A. zoo a few miles away. Many of the animal enclosures that were built in the 1930's are still in there, available for tourists and thrill seekers to wander around in. It is said that not only are these cages haunted by people (with full bodied apparitions being sighted numerous times), but by the animals kept at the zoo seem to haunt the cages as well. Tales of ghostly animal growls being heard inside the enclosures abound. The creepy vibe of the place in enhanced by the inhuman condition the animals must have lived in in these horrifying cages made even more sinister by the tagging from L.A.'s notorious gangs. So if you have some time, and the nerve, make sure to check out the Old L.A. Zoo while in Griffith Park.

Friday

And so it is Friday the 13th. Bah, humbug. Why is it considered unlucky? I for one can’t remember anything really bad happening on this day; and the ones I do remember are more from good luck than bad: I once met a new love on this date at a swinging night club; I once got revenge on an ass-whole of a boss who was "let-go" on a Friday the 13th and so I got to watch him being escorted out the door by a security guard; and then there have been those numerous three and four dollar scratch-off lottery ticket winnings on this day. Yes, Friday the 13th is a great day for me, unlike those pseudo Christians who give it a negative meaning based on a flawed Solar Calendar that suggest Jesus died on a Friday and then woke up late for work on a Monday. Highly unlikely, still, something to believe in.

The other Christian superstition that scares folks about this glorious day has something to do with having 13 mouths to feed at a supper: one will certainly be a psycho murderer named Judas Iscariot... or Jason. Maybe that’s where the old English superstition not to invite 13 guest to dinner because one will die before the year is out, got started? — not to mention there will be one odd person left out of a conversation unless the dinner happens to be hosted by... I don't know, say: SATAN. Speaking of which, a Devil's Dozen used by witches has 13 as opposed to 12 as a parody of the 12 disciples of Jesus (guilty as charged).

Well, those are my thoughts on this beautiful Friday the 13th. Enjoy yours, Peace on Earth and good luck to you and yours...

Saturday

If the expression “history repeats itself” holds any truth, then Earth is due for a pole reversal any day now, with a recent report suggesting it may occur in our lifetime. Pole reversals are natural and in reality a far cry from what’s depicted in natural disaster films. However, when the poles do change again it’ll be rather hard to miss. Here’s what to expect if you get to witness our next polar flip.

In a nutshell, the core of the Earth is basically a giant magnet, and every few hundreds of thousands of years the South Pole becomes the North Pole and vice versa. This flip does not mean that the planet necessarily turns topsy-turvy, but rather that the invisible magnetic field surrounding Earth changes direction, causing your compass to point south rather than north. The pole change will have the biggest effect on our power grids and communication systems, but researchers predict that the human body may experience some of the effects of the reverse as well.

The Earth’s magnetic field takes between 1,000 and 10,000 years to reverse, LiveScience reported. However, it’s during this transition period that humans will be subjected to the most noticeable changes. Some will be harmless (and amazing) such as the aurora borealis being visible in Hawaii and Venezuela rather than the Arctic and Alaska, as reported by The Huffington Post. Others will be slightly less pleasant.

As the poles slowly flip, the magnetic field begins to progressively lose its strength. Although the Earth is also protected by the atmosphere, with a weakened magnetic field the planet will be slightly more susceptible to blasts of radiation from the sun. Coronal mass ejections (CME) occur occasionally toward the direction of the Earth, and changing poles may increase their effect on our planet. "Some of the particles associated with CMEs can be blocked by Earth's magnetic field. With a weak field, this shielding is less efficient," John Tarduno, professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester told LiveScience.

Without the magnetic field, more particles would be able to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere, causing holes in the ozone layer. These holes in the ozone layer would be temporary, but during this time humans would be at an increased risk for developing skin cancer, Tarduno explained.

While scientists debate over the severity of solar radiation that Earth would be exposed to during a pole change, it’s also important to keep in mind that modern sun screen is capable of protecting against most radiation given off from the sun.

Many animals are sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field and rely on geomagnetism to aid in navigation. During the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field it’s possible that animals such as bees, salmon, turtles, whales, pigeons, and even bacteria, could become disorientated, but seeing as Dr. Sten Oldenwald, an astronomer at the National Institute of Aerospace explained that these shifts have occurred at least 170 times in Earth’s history, it's likely these animals will be able to find their way again.

Although humans do not rely on the Earth’s magnetic field as heavily to help with navigation as many animals do, many scientists have found a correlation between human mental health and changes in magnetism. It’s been observed that during geomagnetic storms, when animals lose their sense of direction humans exhibit a different type of change, and depression and suicides will increase. However, what exactly would happen to human’s mental state during a magnetic reversal remains unknown.

Whenever the polar reverse does happen, it's likely to take a very very long time to complete.

"Such a flip is not instantaneous but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years," Rune Floberghagen, mission manager of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) satellite array Swarm, told LiveScience.

In that time, we’re likely to have become prepared for its effects on our health, and in a world where people are dying from the caramel coloring in soda, it may be that the poles changing are the very least of our worries.

Thursday

Former classmates of a teen who stormed the studios of Dutch national TV demanding airtime before being arrested described him on Friday as a "normal guy", but one fascinated by conspiracy theories.

"Clever, pleasant and a bit of a loner, but certainly not a crazy guy," one of the 19-year-old's former classmates at Delft Technical University told the daily Algemeen Dagblad.

Another former classmate told the NOS public broadcaster, where the drama played off, that the teen, seemingly normal, had a rich imagination and was "often in his own world."

"In recent years he was interested in conspiracy theories involving the Free Masons and a 'new world order'," the student said.

The man, a first-year student at Delft Technical University, forced his way into a studio at the NOS broadcaster's headquarters in the city of Hilversum Thursday evening waving what turned out to be a fake pistol and demanding airtime.

Sunday

Okay boys and girls, it is time we spoke of that great holy book which was once called the Eight Wonder of the World. Yes, the Codex Gigas, or better known: The Devil’s Bible.

A lot has been researched and written on this book, but the facts will really never be known. What is known is that the book was written by a single scribe around the 13th century in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic. The folk lore is that a monk was sentenced to death Edgar Allen Poe style by being walled up alive behind a cement wall brick-by-brick — apparently that really happened. The monk pleaded for his life and made a deal with the church that he would write the most holy of holy books in one night, and if he did so, they would have to agree to let him live.

The story goes that the church agreed and this crazed monk wrote feverishly through the night until around midnight when he realized he could never finish it on his own and so, spat on the cross and made a deal with the Devil and by morning, the Codex Gigas was ready.
The book itself is about the size of a suitcase.
It is written in Latin and as far as I know has never been translated into English. The research I’ve done states that it begins with a transcription of the original Bible and then goes into a book of spells and chants with the most notable pages hosting a picture of a droll looking devil on the right and a coded text for heaven on the left.

It is highly unlikely that it was written in one night, but has been proven that is was written by a single scribe and probably took around 25 to 30 years to write. Most researchers agree that it was a monk called Herman the Recluse who was sworn to isolation as his penance.

A word to the wise, however, if you have a chance to own this book, don’t: it seems to have been cursed from its earliest years where the monastery that originally kept it failed and had to sell it to an emperor known as The Mad Alchemist (Rudolf II) who went Bible crazy and lost his thrown.

Today this mysterious book sits in the National Library of Sweden. And I for one, have no intentions on visiting it.